According to a Telegraph article, British health officials have a new message: Facebook = Syphilis. While that may be a simplification, the actual correlation seems a little simple in itself, so we don’t feel we’re exxaggerating that much.

The new theory is based on the fact that syphilis has increased four times over in areas of Great Britain where Facebook enjoys the most popularity.

Professor Peter Kelly, a director of public health in one of the affected districts, put it together as such: “Syphilis is a devastating disease. Anyone who has unprotected sex with casual partners is at high risk. There has been a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected with more young women being affected. I don’t get the names of people affected, just figures, and I saw that several of the people had met sexual partners through these sites. Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex.”

Sounds like shaky evidence to me, but Facebook does indeed make it easier for sex-obsessed members of society to hook up with all kinds of partners (and syphilis).

“Get off Facebook and take out the trash or you’ll get syphilis!” sounds like the new battle cry of parents everywhere.